Wednesday, June 3, 2015

TRANSGENDER IN YORUBA TRADITIONAL HISTORY

INTRODUCTION:

Right to expression is a fundamental right to all humans. Most times we tend to look at this right only from the aspect of freedom of speech, however an integral part of expression is also gender or sexual expression.

Gender or sexual expression is influenced by culture, which is fluid, in the sense that as the way of life of particular groups of persons are influenced, so is their perception and reaction to things around them, which also change with time. These influences can be in the form of cultural domination or subjugation, religious ideology, etc.

Africa has a diverse form of gender and sexual expression and in the Yoruba traditional belief in particular, gender and sexual expression is fluid as the manifestation of gender can either take the course of male or female even for the same person.

Most opponents of LGBT rights use culture to jettison the idea of respect for the protection of rights of LGBT persons, as the normal cliché is ‘its never part of our culture’. Further, most also oppose LGBTI rights based on lack of or limited knowledge on LGBTI issues, hence when they are probed about these issues, they lack answers to such questions or when they struggle to utter any answer, such are tainted with sentiments that lack basis.

This article will try to explore transgender in Yoruba traditional belief and the role non-gender conforming persons play in traditional society. Its will also explore the life of Omosun on the issue of rights assertion by gender non-conforming persons in Yoruba traditional settings.

TRANSGENDER:

Transgender in simple terms means the state when a person’s gender identity or expression does not match the assigned sex at birth.
Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, or something else; Gender expression refers to the way a person communicates gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice, or body characteristics[1].
Note that gender is a social and cultural construct, hence its fluid as earlier discussed in the introduction, so the issue of expression of gender is also influenced by the same factors as culture.

GENDER EXPRESSION IN YORUBA TRADITION
Yoruba gender construction is fluid and is modulated by other factors such as seniority (age) and personal achievements (wealth and knowledge acquisition)[2]. Although gender is fluid Yoruba traditional culture, in their usage of language gender is limited to binary (male and female). It is worthy to note that binary usage of gender is not only limited to humans but also include expressions in cosmos.
Gender non-conforming expressions in Yoruba culture does not necessarily mean that the person needs to forgo any the social constructions linked to their biological sex, but assuming the gender role of male or female depending on circumstances.
This is more evident in expressions like ‘obirin bi okunrin’ meaning ‘a woman behaving like a man’, which is not a praise but more of implying that the feat undertaking by the female is more of a male role than that of the female and shows how gender expression in Yoruba traditional setting can be fluid, not restrictive.
Careful look at gender expression in Yoruba tradition one will note that in diverse settings, gender non-conforming is never frown upon, as feats and roles played by opposite gender in contrasts to their sex is appreciated and applauded.
The above have tried to examine gender expression and its fluidity in Yoruba tradition. It’s also important that we examine gender identity within the same context.

The issue of gender identity within Yoruba traditional can be more understood through a careful examination of the life of a character, Omosun

OMOSUN

According to history, Omosun is the second child of the 21st Alaafin of Oyo. After the death of the first-born she wanted to be accorded the same rights and privilege as the first child not even minding the gender.

While her story might be waved away by some as women emancipation, it will be helpful to note that what she wanted was not just to be given a mere privilege as the fist child since the one before her is dead, but she wanted to be regarded as a man and critically looking at the scant history about her will help to expanciate more on this.

Omosun is regarded as a “although a female, was of a masculine character and she considers the right and privileges of the Aremo (Crown Prince) her own”[3]

To better understand the issue of gender identity here, it is good to understand the role of the Aremo in Yoruba tradition.

The Aremo was usually the Alafin's eldest son, and until 1730 he regularly succeeded his father. From then on he was expected to commit suicide on his father's death, a practice that was followed until the 1850s. The Aremo at times shared a good deal of his father's power, but was not subject to the same ritual restrictions[4].

With the knowledge about the power the Aremo welds it will be a misnomer for a person who did not see herself as a man to aspire for such a title, as in the case of Omosun.

Omosun devised a murderous plot to get what she said rightfully belongs to her. When ‘her’ father, Osinyago, adopted Woruale  (Irale) his cousin as the Aremo, Omosun resented the appointment not because ‘she’ prefers another person for the title but she wanted that as her own.

The appointment of a new Aseyin provided the opportunity for Omosun to carry out her plans. A dispute arose between Omosun and Woruale as to the right of appointing a new Aseyin, and Woruale made the appointment without a recourse to her, Omosun felt her pride as the “real Aremo” was insulted by a mere commoner, in the heat of passion she slew Woruale.

This account, like earlier stated is not about woman emancipation but more of the issue of a person’s inner feeling of who they are, in this case Omosun, although not being called a male, have an inner feeling of not a female but rather a male and demand all the rights and privileges of a male, remember ‘she’ was being described as ‘although a female was of a masculine character’

CONCLUSION:

This paper sought to examine transgender as part of the Yoruba traditional settings, although the issue of the identity most times linked to the sex organs, however, oral traditions and historical records has shown that gender is fluid.

Further, we are able to understand that the concept of transgender as we understand it now, might be different from the understanding of such in ancient times.

Also, we were able to understand that a person might not be able to publicly identify and claim to be of the opposite gender different from their sex organs, but there are instances of others that have openly lay claim to what we can traditionally say is within the jurisdiction of the other gender as in the case of Omosun.







[1] http://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/transgender.pdf
[3] History of the Yorubas by Rev Samuel Johnson pp 173
[4] http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/yorubat/yt2.html